Trial in Kan. Barrel Murders Begin

Published 7:00 pm, Sunday, October 6, 2002

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) _ A man accused of killing women and stuffing their bodies into barrels had a sadomasochistic relationship with two of the victims, a prosecutor said Monday as the trial began.

An attorney for John E. Robinson Sr. countered that his client's sexual lifestyle doesn't make him a murderer.

Robinson, 58, is charged in the deaths of Suzette Trouten, 28, in 2000 and Izabela Lewicka, 22, a year earlier. The bodies of both women were found in barrels on Robinson's property 60 miles south of Kansas City.

Robinson is also charged with murdering Lisa Stasi, 19, who was last seen with Robinson before she disappeared in 1985.

"It's kind of an erotic fantasy life that Suzette Trouten, Izabela Lewicka and John Robinson and others lived," he said.

O'Brien said the investigation yielded circumstantial evidence that linked Robinson to the women, but not to their deaths. He said there would be evidence of third-party fingerprints at the farm and of other sexual partners that Trouten and Lewicka had across the country.

"This is not so much a murder investigation as it is a John Robinson investigation," O'Brien said.

Prosecutors say Robinson was a predator who trolled the Internet under the name "Slavemaster" looking for rough sex with women.

"The evidence will be crystal clear that the defendant has been killing women for over 17 years," District Attorney Paul Morrison said.

In Missouri, Robinson faces murder charges in the deaths of three women whose bodies were found in barrels at a storage locker that he rented.